... let it rain, let it rain...

... let the rain fall down.

Or, How to Vacation When You Live in Seattle.

[ disclaimer - this is being written under the influence of two or... three or something Maker's Marks ]

What do you do when it's June in Seattle and the high for the next week is forecast to be 58 degrees? You head for the sunshine state!

I ought to have had my camera ready when we crossed the state line but wasn't quite fast enough. Here's a shot taken moments later:

Welcome to the Sunshine State

We're spending a week in the "Redneck Riviera," on the panhandle, which means we're sitting in the northern edge of tropical storm Debbie, waiting to see if it turns into a hurricane or not. Either way, it's riptides and red flags on the beaches, which means the girls and I went swimming in the rain in the pool. Which worked fine, except when you got out of the water, when it was a tad cold…. (I don't have any pictures of the swim because I didn't want to drown my camera.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself, because in order to drive INTO this tropical storm, we first had to fly to Birmingham. Which means getting onto a plane at 10am 11am in Seattle, and flying to Albuquerque, then Chicago, then running .5 miles from gate B12 to gate A4A, in order to catch our connecting flight to Birmingham that was supposed to take off 5 minutes before we arrived at the gate on our previous flight.

A picture from the trip:

"Please return your children to their upright and locked positions...."

Some choice quotes from the long day of travel (it did a good job of approximating the journey on the Oregon Trail, if those traveling the Oregon Trail had to fly Southwest Airlines from Seattle to Albuquerque to Chicago to Birmingham):

K: Daddy, I haven't gassed one time all day long!
me: It's like a miracle!
me (a few minutes later): Is that your gas?
K (smiling): Yeah.

M: K needs to go to the bathroom.
me: Ok. Come on K. (we walk to the back of the plane where someone is coming out of the bathroom). Let's wait here until it's free.
A little girl comes back, obviously wanting to use the bathroom.
me: There's someone in there.
little girl (confused look): silence
We wait for 5 or 8 minutes, while the flight attendants pour and serve drinks around us.
me: Let's move over there. We'll be out of the way.
K: Daddy?
me: Yeah?
K: I don't think there's anyone in there.
me: No, there is. (looking at the door) Uh, what color is that?
K: Green Daddy.
me (opening the bathroom door): Uh, ok. I'm colorblind, remember.
K: silence.